Tag Archives: architecture

My walk this week is along the London Embankment from Tate Britain to Tate Modern. The route is a melting pot of people from everywhere and a multitude of sounds ranging from the lapping of the River Thames following the passage of river boats, to music and talking and footsteps and skateboards and birds and more and more.

But the soundscape was not cacophonous, the streets and walk-ways were (mostly) not overcrowded. While I was amazed at the place, the people, the buildings, the river activity, I was not overwhelmed or oppressed by them. Continue reading→

I was looking for woodland on my walk this week – and I found it, to a degree, behind the colour in construction of the Science and Technology Block of York University.

It was open woodland straggling along the back of the university which I picked up again on my return across open fields. The colours used in the modern buildings reflected those of older walls surrounding the adjacent York House BIRT facility. I enjoyed the colour in both as well as the textures and patterns in the old, and the cleanliness and hard edges of the new.Continue reading→

While walking around York railway station on my walk this week I saw an increasing number of photographers hanging around – then, to my surprise, the Scarborough Express steam train arrived – which explained everything.

Moving from the abandoned windows of old Copperopolis to holes in the walls of this historical aspect of Swansea, I found it difficult to understand the confusing perspective of some of the multi-layered gaps in the facades of the buildings.

I have photographed this building before but only from the other side of the River Tawe and it was good to get a closer look at its abandoned state. Those holes in the wall appear decorativeContinue reading→

Exploring one of Swansea’s old industrial areas on my walk this week, I am focused on how nature continues to take over Copperopolis. The old Hafod-Morfa Copperworks has plants growing out of its walls now – it closed down in 1980 and nature seems to be doing a fairly efficient job of reclamation as 1980 doesn’t seem all that long ago to me (I must be getting old!).

But the wall plants weren’t the only things of interest as the shapes, patterns and textures of the old walls were also caught my eye. From theContinue reading→

My walk this week is the first stage of my visual exploration of local nature and an old and world renown aspect of Swansea’s history – Copperopolis. Click the link if you would like to know more about that history. In the past I have only photographed elements of this industrial history and the nature overtaking it from across the River Tawe and it was good to take the opportunity to look a bit closer at how nature takes over all that we leave behind.

It is good to see how little impact we have on the the natural world, at least in the longer term of our lifespans – even multiple generations of our lives are only a snippet of time in the life of the planet or universe. It is also excitingContinue reading→

My walk this week has been around the area next to Bristol Temple Meads and at the end of this architectural walk I entered the railway station, not just to view its structure and design but talso to listen to its sounds.

The start of my soundscape for this walk, like the photos posted at the start of the week, provide some evidence of people – footsteps and voices – but not nearly as much as you might expect for the number of people that were actually there. Perhaps the sounds of human voices and the actions of individuals were being absorbed or muffled by the three dimensional complexity of the city’s architecture and the activities taking place, such as building construction, trains, traffic, etc.

The sounds inside the station were, as you would expect, different. Aside from the echo and reverberation of the cavernous space, the density of people and subsequently their voices and conversations rose to another level. And then the trains arrived and the background ambience changed again – until the train left.

This walk did not involve much in the way of nature and for me there is no question about which is more pleasant and relaxing (a natural environment), but I still find the urban environment of huge interest and I am just as fascinated by the textures, patterns, shapes and colours to be seen and heard around me in the city as I am in a wood or on a mountain – less relaxed but still interested.

On my walk this week around an area of the Bristol cityscape next to Temple Meads railway station, I was attracted by the patterns and perspectives, and the nuts and bolts of the architecture and construction along the riverside.

A passing walker said he liked the view up the river from under a nearby bridge so I made a point of heading that way. Underneath I found I liked the view of the bridge as much as from it, enjoying the rows and patterns in perspective of nuts and bolts and rivets as well as the dark heavy weight of the structure. The design and engineering of structures like this and all the architecture around me was remarkable. The arrangement of the buildings is also remarkable and looking at them from different angles creates a new jigsaw of shapes with every turn of the head.